‘Lots of opportunities’ for UK firms to invest in Dubai energy sector

UK businesses have “lots of opportunitites” to invest in Dubai’s energy sector.

That’s according to Saeed Al Tayer, MD and CEO at Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA) who talked about the region’s power sector.

Mr Al Tayer told ELN: “Dubai is open for everybody and there is more opportunity in retrofit buildings, in green buildings, in green economy, in solar… So there is a very big opportunity I think for UK companies to participate in Dubai’s tenders.”

He added lower oil prices have not affected the region’s power sector as they don’t produce oil and gas but efficiency is one of their main strengths as “efficiency in generation, our efficiency in transmission and distribution are the best in the world.”

DEWA has set a target to source 75% of energy from clean power sources by 2050. Apart from solar projects, its programme includes retrofitting 30,000 buildings and implementing energy storage.

Mr Al Tayer went on: “Energy storage is a challenge worldwide because of the costs and also because of the space but I think in the end we will see many developments. We are developing a new project in Dubai. It’s a pilot project we hope it will be from 3MW to 5MW and will be based on hydrogen.”

Another energy storage project for wind energy is also being developed for the region, he added.